


Luz's Wonderful Life

by Amity_towards_all



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27982473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amity_towards_all/pseuds/Amity_towards_all
Summary: Watching as Eda struggles to adjust to the loss of her magic, Luz feels responsible. She wonders if all the friends she met on the Boiling Isles would be better off if they'd never met her. Then, a magical creature shows her what the Boiling Isles would be like if she'd never come.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Boscha, Amity Blight & Boscha & Skara, Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda & Willow Park, Amity Blight & Skara, Amity Blight & Willow Park, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Barcus & Jerbo & Viney (The Owl House), Eda Clawthorne & Hooty & King & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & King, Eda Clawthorne & King & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, Lilith Clawthorne & Luz Noceda, Luz Noceda & Gus Porter, Luz Noceda & Willow Park, Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter, Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 110
Kudos: 213





	1. Luz's Wish

It had been a week since Luz’s harrowing encounter with the Emperor, and the inhabitants of the Owl House had more or less adjusted to their new situation. Lilith was even eating at regular intervals, which was a far cry from her first few days in her new home.

“This is what you eat?” Lilith had said that first morning when Eda served up breakfast, an unappealing gruel along with stale, leftover cake that still had some of King’s fur stuck to it.

Luz remembered reacting similarly to her first few meals at the Owl House. Back then, she’d thought that all Boiling Isles food was just like that. It wasn’t until later that she’d learned it was mostly just Eda.

“Yeah,” Eda replied. “Being a fugitive doesn’t exactly lend itself to the same lifestyle as being the head of the Emperor’s Coven.”

Lilith grimaced. “I think I’ll skip breakfast.”

“Hey, when you’re hungry enough, this stuff tastes great!”

“Then I’ll wait until then,” Lilith had said, walking out of the kitchen.

But that morning Lilith had eaten breakfast without any complaints, although not exactly with relish.

Luz had adjusted to the new presence in the house too. Her feelings towards Lilith were complicated. She couldn’t forget how she’d taken her prisoner, forced Eda to turn into the Owl Beast, and then cruelly told her that she didn’t belong in the Boiling Isles or as part of Eda’s family and to leave.

But she’d also betrayed the Emperor, saved Eda from petrification, and taken on half the curse, transforming Eda back.

And Luz realized that some of her anger towards Lilith wasn’t only because of what she’d done to her and Eda but also how powerless she’d made Luz feel. And after rescuing Eda and getting the better of the Emperor, even if only temporarily, she didn’t feel that way anymore.

Lilith had apologized to Luz, but things were still uneasy between the two. They kept their distance from each other. But the Owl House wasn’t all that big, and there were times when interacting was inevitable. During those times, Luz had slowly but steadily become more comfortable with her mentor’s sister.

Lilith had insisted on making dinner that night. As she finished up her cooking, Eda paced around the kitchen impatiently, not because she was especially eager to eat but because she was bored in general.

“I thought by now we’d have had to deal with some attacks by the Emperor’s Coven or something,” Eda said. “But there hasn’t been any action this whole week. Who knew being a fugitive could be so boring? I wish we could have some excitement.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Edalyn,” Lilith said. “You don’t want to tempt the sprites.”

Eda rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on.”

“The sprites?” Luz said. “What sprites.”

Eda scoffed, but Lilith explained in a slightly spooky voice. “They’re creatures from Boiling Isles folklore. Little things that hear when you wish for something you don’t really mean. They say, ‘So be it,’ and make whatever you wished for come true.”

“Whoa! There are really things out there that do that? Someone should’ve warned me!”

Eda laughed. “Luz, you’re not gullible enough to believe that, are you?”

“Oh yeah, in this island made from the body of a fallen titan full of witches and demons, how could I be so foolish as to believe in _that_?”

“Hmm… yeah I see your point,” Eda said. “But believe me, those sprites aren’t real. Just a story parents tell their kids to stop them from wishing their annoying siblings would drop dead.”

“Edalyn’s right,” Lilith said. “They’re imaginary.”

“But that’s what I used to think about everything I’ve seen here.”

“Just because some things you thought weren’t real actually are doesn’t mean _everything_ is real,” Eda said. “I’m telling you, they’re imaginary.”

“Well, if you say so,” Luz said.

After that, King ran into the kitchen shouting, “Is dinner ready yet? The King of Demons needs his nutrition!”

“Almost,” Lilith said. “I’m just going to cast a spell to–”

Lilith stopped and looked at Eda.

“It’s OK, Lily,” Eda said. “You don’t have to avoid talking about magic in front of me. I’m OK.”

Lilith just nodded and went back to her cooking, still frowning.

“You really don’t miss your magic?” Luz asked.

“Not at all!” Eda took out a piece of paper from her pocket and drew a light glyph. “I have all the magic I need right here!”

She tapped on it, but nothing happened.

“Huh? Oh, I got these two lines slanted in the wrong direction.”

“Eda,” Luz said, her eyes beginning to water. “If I hadn’t tried to steal the Healing Hat–”

“Hey! I don’t want to hear any more of that talk, OK? This isn’t your fault.

"She's right," Lilith said. "It's my fault."

Eda didn't contradict her.

“And hey, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have _any_ magic in my life now,” Eda said.

Luz nodded, but she wasn’t convinced.

Later that night when Eda thought Luz had gone upstairs to bed, she sat on the couch and tried in vain to cast a spell the way she was used to. Once again, the magic circle broke and crumbled apart. Eda sighed deeply.

What she didn’t know was that Luz was just outside the living room and had seen the whole thing.

Luz went to her room and got her cape. Then, she grabbed her backpack. It was full of pre-drawn glyphs, and with the Emperor’s Coven after them, it was best to be as careful as possible.

“Eda,” she said once she’d gone back downstairs. “I’m going to take a walk.”

“This late?”

“Yeah, I really need some fresh air.”

“Don’t we all. Well, OK, just be careful. Make sure to wear your cape.”

“I did. I’ll be back soon.”

Eda studied Luz. “You OK, kiddo?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Luz left through the front door.

“Everything clear, Hooty?” she asked, the usual routine when any of them left the house now.

“Yep! No suspicious characters anywhere near here.”

Luz walked in the woods until she saw a log that she could sit on to ruminate. Poor Eda. Luz thought of all the times she’d proudly declared that she was the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, all the incredible things she’d seen her do with magic, all the joy she took in it. All of that had been taken from her.

And it was her fault. Eda had evaded the Emperor’s “justice” for decades, but it had only taken a few weeks of Luz being there for her to get caught.

Eda had done so much for her. She’d made her wildest dreams come true! And she’d repaid her with nothing but trouble. And not just by getting her turned into the Owl Beast and captured by the Emperor. She’d also gotten tricked by Adegast, taken Eda’s potion to try to gain magic, and ignored her teachings, causing her to get captured by the Slitherbeast, not to mention lying to her about the moonlight conjuring and almost getting her house destroyed or stealing her staff and getting poor Owlbert hurt.

And it wasn’t just Eda. She’d met so many wonderful people on the Boiling Isles, and she’d caused so much trouble for all of them. Take Willow and Gus, her two best friends. She’d gotten them thrown off a cliff, captured by the Bat Queen, into a dangerous grudgby match, and roped into the disastrous heist to steal the Healing Hat.

And then there was Amity. She’d made her look like a cheater at the covention, causing her to break down, and gotten her diary revealed to Ed and Em when they wanted to spread it around to everyone. And speaking of Ed and Em, she’d gotten them captured by the Slitherbeast too, forcing Amity to endanger herself trying to save them, all because she’d stolen Amity’s training wand and lied about how many spells she knew.

And then there was the time she’d jumped at the chance to fight Grom just to prove herself only to fail to defeat it on her own, almost forcing everyone in the Boiling Isles to face their worst fears.

Coming to the Boiling Isles had been the best thing that had ever happened to her, but maybe she was the worst thing to ever happen to it and to all the amazing people she’d met there.

Suddenly, Luz heard a high-pitched shriek from behind the bushes right across from her. She jumped up and trampled through those bushes to see a giant spider’s web with a spider about the length of her arm. Ensnared in the web was a small, purple, humanoid figure with gossamer wings and multicolored eyes that shifted like a kaleidoscope. It was yelling for its life.

“Help!” it cried out.

“Hey!” Luz yelled out, picking up a stick and getting close to the spider. “Leave it alone!”

“Hey, I have to eat too, you know,” the spider replied.

That took Luz by surprise. She’d yelled on instinct, not because she’d expected an answer. Then again, this was the Boiling Isles, after all.

“Uh… well next time eat something that doesn’t talk back.”

“Easy for you to say,” the spider grumbled.

Luz considered for a moment and then opened her backpack to get out a juice box of apple blood ( _blood box?_ Luz wondered).

“If you’re hungry, try this instead,” Luz said.

The spider eyed it uneasily, and with all eight eyes, before eating it the way spiders usually eat things. Luz shuddered and turned away.

“Oh! So juicy!" the spider said once it had finished. "OK, you can take that thing away. Just be careful not to rip up my web.”

Luz gingerly fiddled with the little creature and the web, trying to do as little damage as possible.

The creature giggled. “That tickles!”

“Sorry,” Luz said.

Finally, she got it free and they walked away from the spider.

“You’re not going to turn around and try to eat me or something, are you?” Luz asked. Her time on the Boiling Isles had made her appropriately wary of cute-looking creatures.

It giggled again. “Of course not!”

“I hope I can take your word for it. What’s your name?”

“Clareeko.”

“That’s a pretty name. I’m Luz.”

“That’s a pretty name too!”

Luz laughed. “Thanks.”

Luz wanted to ask _what_ exactly Clareeko was, but she wasn’t sure whether that was considered rude.

“You know, Clareeko, you’re lucky,” Luz said. “If I hadn’t been here, you’d be toast. And after seeing what that spider did to that apple blood… well, I sure wouldn’t want to go out that way. You’ve got to be careful about accidentally running into spider’s webs.”

“I didn’t accidentally run into it. I did it on purpose to cheer you up!”

“What? Cheer me up?”

“Yes! I knew you'd save me, and that would take your mind off of what was bothering you. Didn’t it work?”

“Well… yeah, I guess it did,” Luz said, her brow furrowed.

Did this thing really risk its life jumping into a spider’s web just to lift her spirits? No, it must’ve been joking. Although it _had_ done just that: cheered her up for a moment. But now that she’d been reminded of what she’d been thinking about before, Luz started to feel sad again which must have been apparent on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Clareeko asked.

Luz sighed. “Well, I’ve just been thinking about all the people here that I love. And all the trouble I’ve caused them. They’d be better off if they’d never met me.”

“You really thing so?”

“Yeah. Coming to the Boiling Isles… I can’t even describe how amazing that was for me! But it came at a cost to everyone else, and I’m only now realizing how big a cost it was. I wish I’d never come.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“I do.”

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind swept the place. Luz took note of it but didn’t give it much thought. Then, she took out her Azura book from her backpack.

“Do you mind if I read? I’m kind of not in the mood to talk right now.”

“Of course!” Clareeko said. “Do whatever you want.”

“Thanks. Hey, you want me to read it to you?”

Clareeko was taken aback. None of the people they’d come across in the past had ever tried to entertain them.

“Well, sure, if you want to.”

“Oh, great! But this is the fifth book, so I’m going to have to tell you about the other four first!”

Luz spoke enthusiastically about Azura for a considerable length of time before starting to read the book she’d brought. By the time she got to it, it was pretty late, so late that it wasn’t long before Luz dozed off mid-sentence, lying fast asleep in the woods all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by It's a Wonderful Life, but the sprites are inspired by the tathastu-devatas, which are deities in Indian folklore that say "tathastu," which roughly translates to "so be it," when someone says that something will happen or wishes for something to happen. They're used to tell people not to be negative.


	2. Luz Visits Hexside

Luz woke up the next morning with an ache in her back, neck, and right shoulder, the price of falling asleep in a strange position on a log in the woods. She groaned as she stretched herself out before realizing what she’d done.

“Oh no! I’ve slept here the whole night! Everyone home must be worried!”

She collected her things to rush back to the Owl House before noticing that Clareeko was still there.

“Clareeko, did you stay here all night? Why didn’t you go home?”

“Oh, I don’t have a home.”

Luz gasped. “Oh no! Do you need help?”

Clareeko giggled. “Not at all! My kind doesn’t have homes. We just wander around.”

“Oh. What about family?”

“No, we don’t keep families.”

“And that doesn’t make you sad or lonely?”

“Not at all! That’s just how we all live.”

Luz thought about that. She supposed different creatures had different ways of living, but it was hard for her not to find that sad.

“Well, you can stay with me for as long as you want.”

Luz and Clareeko made their way back to the Owl House, where Hooty popped up in front of them.

“Who goes there?”

“Sorry, Hooty,” Luz said. “I fell asleep in the woods. But I’m fine.”

“Who are you?” Hooty asked.

“What are you talking about? Is this because you’re angry that I worried you last night?”

“I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“Hey, I said I was sorry. Now stop fooling around. I need to get ready for school.”

“I can’t let you into this house without knowing who you are.”

“Hooty, I don’t have time for this! Fine, I’ve got a spare uniform in my backpack. I’ll just have to change at Hexside.”

With that, Luz walked off, leaving Hooty baffled.

“You want to come to school with me?” Luz asked Clareeko. “I’m sure they’d let me bring you in.”

Clareeko nodded. They made it to Hexside, where a group of guards wielding large clubs was standing by the entrance.

“Huh?” Luz said. “What are these guards doing here?”

Luz went up to them, but they placed the clubs in front of the door, barring her entry.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Luz said.

“Who are you?” One of the guards said. “Why aren’t you in your uniform?”

“I have to change inside. I have it here.”

Luz opened her bag to look for her unique multicolored uniform but found that it wasn’t there.

“What? I could’ve sworn I had a uniform in here.”

“Without a uniform, you can’t come in,” the guard said.

“Oh, come on. Since when did Hexside get all this security?”

“Ever since the Greater Basilisk attack,” the guard said. “If you were really a student here, you would’ve known that.”

Luz was completely confused. After protesting in vain a little more, she finally walked away from the entrance.

“This is so bizarre,” Luz said. Then, she spotted Gus and ran over to him.

“Gus!” Luz called out. “I’m glad you’re here. I need your help.”

“Are you talking to me?”

“Yeah…” Luz said.

“My name’s Augustus.”

“What? You don’t like your nickname anymore? I thought you loved it.”

“Nickname? Hey, your ears! You look like a human!”

“What are you talking about? You’re acting weird, Gus.

“And who’s this?” Gus asked, looking at Clareeko.

“This is Clareeko. We just met last night.”

“Hi,” Clareeko said, waving. Gus waved back.

“Anyway,” Luz said. “I need you to make an illusion so that I look like I’m wearing a uniform so I can get in the school.”

“If I do, will you do me a favor and come to the Human Appreciation Society meeting?”

“Again? Fine, whatever you want.”

Gus performed the illusion to give Luz a uniform with illusion colors like his. Luz would’ve preferred the multicolored uniform she was used to wearing but decided to let it go. These new guards didn’t seem to know her, so an unusual uniform would’ve just invited a bunch of annoying questions, and her teachers knew she was studying all the tracks regardless of her uniform anyway. After that, Luz hid Clareeko in her bag and the three of them got into Hexside.

“Sorry about that,” Luz said as she let Clareeko out.

“No problem!” they said.

“This is so exciting!” Gus said in the hallway. “This’ll be my chance to set things right! Ever since he became President, Mattholomule’s been ruining the club. I wish something terrible would happen to him.”

Luz thought that was odd. After their escape from detention together, it seemed like Gus was OK with losing the presidency of the Human Appreciation Society. Why was he suddenly so upset about it?

“Do you really mean that?” Clareeko asked.

“Absolutely!” Gus said.

Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through the hallway.

“Wind inside? That’s weird,” Gus said. “Anyway, I’ve got to get to class, but let’s meet up at lunch!”

After Gus ran off, Luz went to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth with the spare toothbrush she also kept in her bag. As she did that, she tried to make sense of the way Gus had acted. Between Gus and Hooty, she wondered, was this all some elaborate prank? And why were there suddenly guards when that Greater Basilisk attack had happened weeks ago?

“Everything’s so strange,” Luz said to Clareeko.

“You’re going to see a lot of strange things today,” they replied.

As Luz was about to leave the bathroom, she saw Viney come in, but she was wearing an all-blue uniform, not the dual-colored one Luz was used to seeing.

“Viney!” Luz said. “What’s with your uniform?”

“Have we met?” Viney said. Then she looked at Clareeko. “Hey, I’ve never seen anything like this before. What is it?” Then she gasped and said, “Actually, never mind! I don’t need to know anything about different beasts or creatures!”

Luz’s brow furrowed. "Huh?"

“Hey, is something wrong with your ears?” Viney asked. “Some kind of injury? Do you need some healing?”

“What?” Luz said.

Then, it suddenly hit her, the thing that would explain all the strange things she was seeing. Luz left the bathroom and asked Clareeko, “Hey, maybe I’m nuts, but… but last night when I said I wished that I’d never come to the Boiling Isles… did you make that happen?”

Clareeko nodded cheerfully.

“What? For real? Oh, I should've figured this out sooner. I've seen this kind of thing on TV." Then, as the full weight of the whole situation came down on her, Luz suddenly felt like her head was spinning. "I think I need to sit down for a second." Then, she suddenly smiled. "Hey, wait a minute! That means Eda never got captured or turned into the Owl Beast! Right? She still has her magic! I have to go see her.”

As Luz was about leave, Viney came out of the bathroom. Luz realized that she hadn’t considered what would’ve happened to the detention track kids if she’d never come to the Boiling Isles. In fact, she realized that there were a lot of things that she hadn’t considered.

“Viney,” Luz said. “How did you get out of the detention track?”

“Who are you?”

“Oh, sorry, I’m Luz Noceda. I’m… new here.”

“But you act like you know me.”

“Well… I heard all about you from your friend, Jerbo.”

“Jerbo? How’s he doing? I haven’t seen him in so long.”

“What? Why not? You're close friends.”

Viney frowned. “We used to be… but Principal Bump said that we could only rejoin our old tracks if we never associate with each other again. He thought we were a bad influence on each other. If we get caught, we could get expelled.”

“But… but you’re troublemakers. Shouldn’t you ignore the rules and find ways to see each other anyway?”

“Troublemaker? I'm no troublemaker!" Viney's eyes darted around nervously. Then, she added in a softer tone, "Ever since the Greater Basilisk attack, the security here has been ridiculous. We can’t get away with anything.”

Hearing the Greater Basilisk attack mentioned again made Luz remember how she’d been the one to rally the detention track kids to defeat it.

“Hey, what happened with that Greater Basilisk attack?” Luz asked.

“It was terrible! We were all comatose and drained of our magic for weeks until it was finally caught by animal control. After that, they increased the security.”

“Wow…” Luz said. “OK… and I guess Bump let you rejoin the healing track… but what about beast keeping?”

Viney sighed. “I had to give up beast keeping,”

“But what about Puddles? You loved her!”

Viney didn’t say anything, just looking away and frowning, her eyes glistening a little.

“Viney, why don’t we go talk to Principal Bump? I’m sure we can convince him that mixing magic is OK.”

Suddenly, Viney’s eyes glazed over and she said monotonously, as if in a trance, “Mixing magic is wrong. Good students don’t mix magic, and I’m a good student.”

After that, Viney wandered off abruptly.

“Huh?” Luz said. Then she realized that without her there to wreck detention, Viney and the others must’ve stayed in those weird pods until they’d gotten brainwashed into thinking that there was something wrong with mixing magic.

“Clareeko… this is terrible.”

“Well, what did you think would happen to Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus without you?”

“I didn’t think about it,” Luz said. “Or I guess I figured things would’ve worked out anyway.”

“Looks like they didn’t.”

“Yeah…” Luz said. “But… but I can fix this. I just need to talk to Principal Bump. But first I have to see Eda.”

Luz tried leaving Hexside, but with all the new guards around, it was impossible to sneak out. Even pretending she was sick or that there was an emergency didn’t work.

“I guess I’ll have to wait until school is over,” Luz said to Clareeko. “Maybe in the meantime I can try helping those detention track kids.”

Luz started walking to Principal Bump’s office, but on the way, she spotted Willow.

“Oh no,” Luz said the moment she saw her, because instead of the green uniform she was used to seeing on her, Willow was still wearing the magenta of the abomination track.


	3. Luz Meets Willow

"This is bad," Luz said. “Willow’s still in the abomination track?”

“What did you expect?” Clareeko asked.

“I… I don’t know. I guess I didn’t think about it. Or I just assumed everyone would’ve figured things out without me.”

“It sounds like you were only thinking of the trouble you caused people without thinking of all the ways you’ve _helped_ them too.”

“I… I guess… but none of this is _too_ bad. I can fix all this and set everything right. That’s something I can’t say about Eda’s magic before I wished for this.”

Luz studied Willow. She looked so shy and sad, not at all like the confident, cheerful Willow she’d come to know. Luz approached her.

“Willow?”

“Hello?” Then, she looked at Luz’s ears. “Round ears? Hey! You’re not a human, are you?”

“Yeah,” Luz said. “I’m Luz Noceda. I’ve already met your friend Gus– I mean, Augustus.”

“Oh, that must be how you know my name. He must’ve been thrilled!” Willow looked at Clareeko. “And who’s this?”

“This is Clareeko,” Luz said as the two waved at each other. “Willow, why are you in the abomination track and not the plant magic track?”

“Plant magic? Did Augustus tell you I like plant magic?”

“Uh… yeah… let’s go with that.”

“I used to like plant magic, but the abomination track just has better opportunities down the line.” Willow’s eyes glanced down as she said, “It’s for the best.”

“Oh, come on. What does it matter what kinds of opportunities there are in the track if you’re miserable doing it?”

“I’m… I’m not miserable…” Willow said uncertainly.

“Wait a minute, I think I might have a seed somewhere here.” Luz dug around in her bag. “Show Principal Bump how great you are at plant magic and he’ll switch you into that track just like before.”

“Principal Bump? Oh no, I couldn’t go to him. What if he gets angry?”

“He won’t! Oh, drat! I can’t find any seeds.”

“It wouldn’t matter anyway. I can’t do plant magic.”

“Sure, you can!” Luz said. “You just need a little confidence!”

“No, I _literally_ can’t,” Willow said. “All my magic except for abomination magic was sealed away.”

Luz gasped. “What?! But I thought your magic wasn’t sealed away until you officially join a coven.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been… struggling… in class. And Principal Bump and the professor thought it might help me focus better if all my other magic was sealed away early so there wouldn’t be any distractions.”

“Oh no,” Luz said. “Willow, I’m sorry. I never imagined that this would happen.”

“It’s for the best,” Willow said with a frown. “Besides, it’s not like it’s _your_ fault this happened.”

“Oh… don’t worry, I’ll make this right… somehow…”

“There’s nothing you need to make right,” Willow said. “I just need to get my grades up and everything will be OK.” Then, Willow grimaced. “Unfortunately, that means working with the tutor they assigned me.”

“Who’s your tutor?”

As if on cue, from around the corner came Amity wearing a smug smirk.


	4. Willow's Tutoring Session

“Willow!” Amity said with feigned geniality before noticing Luz. “Oh, sorry, I hope I’m not interrupting anything. I wasn’t expecting you to be talking to someone. You know, since you have so few friends.”

Luz gasped.

“Hi, Amity,” Willow said sullenly.

“Ready for your tutoring session?” Amity said.

“I guess,” Willow said with a frown.

“Oh, cheer up!” Amity said. “After a few tutoring sessions with the top student, you’ll be doing better in no time. And then people will finally stop calling you Half-a-Witch Willow.”

Hearing that name, Willow whimpered, and her gaze turned to the floor.

“Hey, don’t call her that!” Luz yelled.

Amity turned to her and said with faux naïvete, “Who, me? _I_ wasn’t calling her Half-a-Witch Willow. I was just saying that’s what _other_ people call her. _I’m_ only trying to _stop_ them by getting Willow’s grades up.” Then, Amity’s eyes narrowed as she said in an irate tone, “Who are you, anyway?” She pointed to Clareeko and added, “And what’s that _thing_ you’ve got with you?”

“I’m Luz. And this is Clareeko.”

“Whatever. I don’t know why I bothered asking.”

Luz was shocked. The Amity she’d come to know was so different from the one in front of her that Luz had practically forgotten how she used to act. It led to a confusing mix of emotions. With Viney and Willow, Luz had felt uncomplicatedly sorry for their plights, but when it came to Amity, Luz had just seen her pick on poor Willow, so any sympathy she had was mixed with righteous anger.

But Luz couldn’t get properly angry with Amity either knowing everything she knew about her and how sweet she _could_ be and really wanted to be, not to mention the fact that Amity wouldn’t be like this right now if not for her own wish.

“Come on,” Amity said to Willow. “Let’s get going”

Amity and Willow walked off to the school library, with Willow hanging her head low.

Luz turned to Clareeko and said, “I’m going to follow them. Hey, wait a minute, what happened with Otabin?”

Luz felt a chill down her spine thinking about how she’d made her wish without even thinking of the possibility of Amity getting sewn into a book without her there. She had to remind herself that she’d just seen that Amity was OK to calm herself down.

“The night of the Wailing Star, you weren’t there to read Otabin the Bookmaker,” Clareeko said. “So Edric and Emira never drew in it. The worst thing Amity had to contend with that night was a scared little duck with legs.”

“Oh… so… Amity _was_ better off without me,” Luz said with relief tempered with the slightest bit of disappointment.

“Does she really seem better off this way compared to how you knew her?”

Luz didn’t answer.

Amity and Willow got to Hexside’s library and set up at a table as Luz and Clareeko watched from a short distance. It didn’t take long for Luz to see that the tutoring was going disastrously.

“OK, this is _very_ basic,” Amity said. “If you’re halfway through mixing an abomination and it’s too watery, what can you add to solidify it?”

“Um… toadstools?”

“No!” Amity slammed her fist down on the table. “Why can’t you get this right?! It’s not that hard!”

Willow let out a whimper and looked away, unable to speak.

“Do you _like_ failing?” Amity asked. “Do you _like_ everyone making fun of you? Because if you don’t shape up–”

“Hey!” Luz said. “Don’t talk to her like that!”

Amity glared at her. “What are _you_ doing here? This is none of your business.”

“Yeah, it is! You can’t treat Willow that way! She’s never going to learn anything if you yell at her and make her feel bad.”

To Luz’s surprise, Amity’s glared softened. She looked away and quietly said, “I… I was just trying to help.”

Hearing that made Willow stand up and say, "That’s not true. You’re just doing this for extra credit. You can just tell the professor that you finished tutoring me and get it.”

For a moment, Amity looked sad. Then her eyes narrowed as she said, “I’m not going to let you make me look like a bad tutor. Now sit back down!”

Willow clenched her fists and yelled, “No! I’d rather fail than let _you_ tutor me.”

Willow ran out of the library, and Luz ran after her.

“Willow, wait!” Luz called out before catching up to her. “It’s OK. We’ll figure things out together.”

“Thanks, Luz, but I don’t see how you can help. I’m just going to keep failing and­–”

“No, you’re not!” Luz said, putting her hands on Willow’s shoulders.

“I just wish I could talk to Augustus,” Willow said. “He’s my only friend.”

“He’s not your only friend anymore! And no matter what anyone else says, you’re a great witch. And we’re going to prove it!”

Although she’d said that with confidence, Luz wasn’t sure what to do next. If she could just get Willow to talk to Principal Bump, maybe they could convince him to unseal her magic, demonstrate her plant abilities, and set everything right. But Willow had already refused to talk to him. If only Luz could get her confidence up.

Then Luz realized that it was patching things up with Amity that had really helped Willow’s confidence. Maybe if she could make that happen now, things would start to get better. And she knew that fixing things with Willow would make Amity happier too.

“I’ll be back,” Luz said to Willow. “Just try to relax.”

Luz gave Willow a hug and said, “It’ll be OK. I promise.”

Luz went back to the library in time to see Amity leaving it with a sad look on her face.

“Amity,” Luz called out.

“What do _you_ want,” she snapped.

“I don’t think you’re tutoring Willow just for extra credit,” Luz said. “I think you _do_ want to help her, and the extra credit is just an excuse.”

“Well… well what would you know about it?”

“Amity, let’s go talk to Willow. You need to apologize.”

“Why should I have to apologize? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Luz gave Amity a stern look and said, “You were yelling at her and berating her!”

“Yeah… but that’s what my parents did if I ever got a bad grade or did anything wrong. And now I’m the top student. Willow needs to toughen up.”

Luz closed her eyes and shook her head in exasperation. “Why were you teasing Willow before? About not having any friends and being called Half-a-Witch Willow?”

“I wasn’t–”

“Yes, you were,” Luz said adamantly.

Amity averted her gaze and softly said, “I don’t know.” Then she glared and said, “Hey… why should I stand here and let you talk to me like this?”

As Amity started to walk off, Luz considered how to get her on her side. What had worked before?

“Hey,” Luz said. “I have the fifth Azura book. Do you want to read it?”

Amity stopped in her tracks. “What makes you think I like the Azura books?”

“Uh… I know your brother and sister. They told me.”

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say.

“If you’re friends with those two, then I don’t want anything to do with you,” Amity snapped. But despite what she’d said, Amity hesitated to leave. “Do you… really have it?”

Luz took the book out of her backpack. “Let’s go back to the library.”

“Well… OK,” Amity said.

The two of them sat down in the library, and Amity started reading.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” Luz asked.

“Yeah… I mean, I guess it’s not bad.” She turned the page. “I can’t believe Hecate and Azura are really teaming up. Do you think two people with their kind of history could really do that? I mean in real life?”

“Yeah,” Luz said. “I do.”

Amity smiled ever so slightly. Luz waited until she got to the end of a chapter before interrupting her reading.

“You said earlier that you were trying to help Willow.”

“Well… yeah, maybe I was hoping to do that in addition to the extra credit.” Amity frowned as she added, “But it was a stupid idea. I’m no good for Willow. All I’ve ever done is make things worse for her.”

“But it doesn’t have to be that way. Why don't you just say you're sorry for yelling at her?"

"That won't make her feel any better. She'd be happier if I just stay away from her."

"That's not true. If you apologize, I know that Willow will feel better.”

Amity paused for a moment before saying, “You really think so?”

“I know so.”

Amity looked uncertain for a moment, but then sighed and said in an annoyed tone, “Oh, fine, if she's that thin-skinned, then I’ll apologize. Just don’t tell anyone.” Amity looked at the clock and added, “My free period’s almost over. I have to get to class, but I’ll talk to Willow at lunch.”

Amity handed Luz the book, but she didn’t take it.

“You can borrow it,” Luz said.

“Really? Thank you. That's… nice.”

Amity walked away, and Luz left soon after, happy that things were starting to look just a little bit better.

But then she heard a loud crash from behind her. Luz turned around and saw a bunch of students crowded around someone by the staircase. Luz ran over to see what was happening and saw that they were all looking at Mattholomule, who was lying on the ground and groaning in agony.


	5. Luz Cheers Up Gus

“What’s going on?” Luz asked.

“I saw him trip and fall down the stairs,” a student said. “Looks like he’s really hurt.”

“I’ll get the nurse,” another student said before running off.

Suddenly, Luz had a terrible thought. She walked a little way from the crowd and said, “Clareeko, you didn’t do this, did you? Because of what Gus said about wishing something terrible would happen to him?”

Clareeko nodded and blithely said, “Yes, I made his wish come true!”

Luz gasped. “Clareeko, that’s terrible!”

“But that’s what he wished for.”

“I know, but he didn’t really mean it.”

“Then why did he say it?”

“I don’t know, people say things they don’t mean sometimes.”

“Did you not mean what you said about wishing you’d never come to the Boiling Isles?”

“Well… no, I really did mean it. At least… I did at the time… But Gus didn’t! You’ll see, he’s going to be really sad when he finds out what happened to Mattholomule.”

Right as Luz said that, Gus came from around the corner with a big grin.

“Luz!” he said. “I’m glad I found you. Did you hear what happened to Mattholomule? He finally got what he deserves!”

Luz gasped. “Gus– I mean, Augustus– how can you say that? He’s seriously hurt!”

“Well, he deserves it!” Then Gus frowned. “I mean… he’s not hurt _too_ badly, is he?”

“I don’t know. But either way, why would you say something like that?”

“Well… the Human Appreciation Society was the only place where I was appreciated. And he took that away from me, and with a bunch of lies too!” Gus sighed. “But I guess no one _really_ appreciated me or they never would’ve listened to Mattholomule in the first place.”

“Augustus, that’s not true! You know who appreciates you? Willow!”

“But it’s not the same. I was able to do things for people in the club. But Willow’s been having a tough time, and I haven’t been able to do anything to help her at all.”

“You have! Just now, she was really upset, and the first thing she said was that she wished she could talk to you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! You’ve helped Willow more than you know.”

Gus smiled. Then, he looked concerned. “You said Willow was upset?”

“Yeah. Why don’t you go cheer her up?”

“OK!” Gus said. “But… maybe first I’ll check on Mattholomule. Just to make sure he’s not hurt _too_ badly.”

Gus and Luz walked over together and saw that the nurse was putting a healing glyph on him.

“Don’t worry,” the nurse said as Mattholomule groaned. “You’ll be fine.”

Luz breathed a sigh of relief.

“See? I knew it,” Gus said. “He’s probably just faking it for attention. I’m going to find Willow.”

Luz considered following Gus but decided that she should meet Amity after class instead just in case she needed to be talked out of any second thoughts she might be having about apologizing to Willow. She waited outside Amity’s classroom until she came out.

“Oh, you’re here,” Amity said.

“Yeah, ready to talk to Willow?”

“I guess. You really think it’ll help?”

“I’m sure of it.”

Luz and Amity walked over to the cafeteria to find Willow, but as they came in through the doorway, they found that a number of students were reading from sheets of paper. Then, they started staring at Amity.

The two girls were puzzled at first, but then Luz had a horrible thought. She looked around the cafeteria and saw Ed and Em in a corner passing out the papers and chuckling.

It wasn’t long before Amity noticed the two of them too. She went up to a student and snatched the papers from out of their hands. She looked at them and gasped as she realized that she was reading the pages of her own diary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays! On the off-chance that this inspires anyone to watch It's a Wonderful Life, please leave a comment because I'd love to hear what you think of it.


	6. Amity's Diary

As Amity read what Ed and Em had passed out to discover which of her secrets had been revealed, Luz walked off to the side to talk to Clareeko.

“I don’t understand. If Ed and Em found Amity’s diary on the night of the Wailing Star, why are they just spreading it around now?”

“They didn’t find it that night,” Clareeko answered. “Since you weren’t there to look at the Azura books in Amity’s secret room, Amity caught them in there before they found it. She didn’t even find out that her diary was what they’d come there to look for. But then they found it a couple days ago. In the meantime, things have gotten even worse between them.”

Luz sighed. Just when things were starting to look up a little. She walked back over to Amity, who was still reading the passages of her diary. Luz noticed that her eyes were glistening as she started blinking rapidly.

“I’m sorry, Amity,” Luz said. She plucked a napkin from a dispenser at a nearby table and handed it to her.

“I don’t need that!” Amity snapped, blinking away her tears as the sadness in her expression was replaced with anger.

Luz followed as Amity marched over to Ed and Em, who started laughing when they saw her approach and noticed her angry expression.

“This is low even for you two!” Amity yelled once she reached them. "How could you do this?"

“Someone needed to take you down a peg,” Em answered.

“Yeah, you’ve been so mean lately.” Ed said. “We needed to teach you a lesson.”

“Oh please!” Amity said. “You’re just mad that I’m the only one who doesn’t let you get away with all your mean pranks!”

"Our pranks are fun!" Ed said.

"Yeah, why do you think no one has a problem with them except you?" Em said. "You're just a killjoy."

Amity casted a fire spell and set the copies still in Ed’s and Em’s hands ablaze.

“Hey!” Ed said as they dropped the flaming pieces of paper. “That’s dangerous!”

“I’ll get you for this!” Amity declared.

Em laughed. “Oh, come one, how are you possibly going to get us?”

“Yeah, what are you going to do? Tell Principal Bump?” Ed asked.

“'Oh, Principal Bump, my brother and sister are being mean to me!'” Em mimicked before they both laughed again.

“You’ll see!” Amity said before walking away.

Before following Amity, Luz looked at Ed and Em in amazement. After the adventure they’d all had at the Knee, she’d almost forgotten how bad things had been between Amity and her siblings that night at the library.

Amity started snatching the copies of her diary from any students reading them when Skara came up to her.

“Amity,” Skara said. “Are you OK?”

“You heard what happened?” Amity said nervously.

“Yeah,” Skara said. “I never realized how lonely you were. You know, if you ever want to talk–”

“You read it?!”

“Um, yeah… sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have?”

“Well, I’m not lonely!” Amity snapped. “And I don’t need anyone to talk to. Especially not you!”

Skara flinched.

“Amity,” Luz said. “Maybe we should all just take a second–”

“And none of this stuff is really from my diary,” Amity said to Skara, ignoring Luz. “Ed and Em just made it all up.”

“Oh… OK…” Skara said. “Hey, why don’t I help you get all the copies from everyone?”

Hearing that, Amity's angry expression evaporated. She glumly said, “Thanks.”

Then, Luz saw Boscha, who was wearing some kind of headband that covered her third eye, come up to them waving a copy of the diary entries.

“Aww, poor Amity. Do you need a friend?” Boscha laughed. “I never would’ve guessed that deep down you were such a softy.”

Amity took on an expression so frightening that Luz and Skara both took a step back instinctively.

“No, Boscha,” Skara said. “All that was just stuff Ed and Em made up.”

“Oh, come on, Skara, you really believe that?” Boscha sneered.

“You’d better stop talking like that if you know what’s good for you,” Amity growled.

“What, you think I’m going to be scared of you after reading all this?” Boscha said.

Amity took a few steps towards Boscha and loomed over her with a frightening glower. Boscha’s eyes widened in surprise, and a moment later she backed away.

“Um… come on, Amity, I was just kidding around!” Boscha said with a nervous chuckle. “Besides, we’re on the same side! I’m as angry with Ed and Em as you are.”

Skara looked at the two of them nervously. “Uh… Boscha, why don’t you help me gather up all the copies?”

“Yeah,” Boscha said. “Sounds like a good idea.”

As Boscha and Skara walked away, Amity turned to Luz.

“You believe me, right? That this isn’t really my diary?”

“Uh… yeah…” Luz said.

Amity sighed. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m going to be a laughingstock now. Boscha and Skara are probably making fun of me as we speak.”

“I’m sorry, Amity.” Luz said. “That was really wrong of Ed and Em."

"You're not going to read it, are you? I mean, not that it matters. Because none of it's true."

"I won't read it," Luz said.

Amity sighed. "You're just saying that."

"No! If you don't want me to read it, I won't."

"Really?"

"I promise."

Hearing that, Amity looked just the slightest bit less upset. "Thank you. I appreciate that."

"And hey, maybe it won’t be as bad as you think," Luz said. "Skara didn’t tease you. She seemed sympathetic.”

“I don’t want her sympathy,” Amity said. “Now she’ll never respect me again. No one will”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“Of course, it is. Look at how Boscha talked to me just now. It’s been years since she’s had the nerve to talk to me like that. And it's because I’ve been so careful to never show any weakness around her. In one day, that’s all down the drain.”

“Why should you care what Boscha thinks?” Luz asked.

“I… I don’t. It’s just… I see her all the time. And now she’s going to keep bringing up all the stuff in my diary. I mean, all the stuff Ed and Em made up.”

“Then why don’t you get some friends who won’t make fun of you? Like me! Or Willow.”

“Why do you keep bringing up Willow? The two of us…" Amity frowned. "We can’t be friends." Then she glared and added, "And I’m _not_ going to apologize to her, by the way.”

“What? But you said you would!”

“Yeah, well I changed my mind. Everything I said to her was true, and coddling her isn’t going to do her any good. The rest of the world isn’t going to play nice with her just because she's sensitive.”

“Apologizing for yelling at her isn't coddling. It's just common courtesy. And don’t take it out on Willow just because you’re mad about what Ed and Em did.”

“That's not what I'm doing!” Amity said.

At the mention of her brother and sister, Amity looked over at them and saw that they were still chuckling in the corner. Their eyes met for a moment, and the two started laughing harder.

Amity turned back to Luz and said, “Oh, I hate them so much! They act like the worst thing they ever do is cut class and I just try to get them in trouble out of spite. But it’s not true! These past few weeks, their pranks have been getting worse and worse. You know what they did just last week?”

“What?” Luz asked.

“They switched all the labels on the potion ingredients, and there was a big explosion when people mixed the wrong things together! Boscha has to wear that eyepatch for a month because of it.”

So that explained the headband, Luz thought, along with what Boscha had said about being as angry at the twins as Amity was.

“I said I’d get back at them,” Amity said. “But how am I going to do that? I can’t come up with pranks like them. And every time I try to get them in trouble, it never works. They're too good at covering their tracks. Oh, I wish those two would just–”

“Wait!” Luz said, looking nervously at Clareeko. “Don’t say anything you’ll regret.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean, I know what they did to you was really bad, but that doesn’t mean you’d want anything terrible to happen to them.”

“Yeah,” Amity said “It does. I wish–”

Luz panicked and put her hand over Amity’s mouth.

“Hey!” Amity said, pushing it away. “What’s wrong with you? Just get away from me!”

Luz breathed a sigh of relief. Then, right before walking away, Amity said, under her breath and too quickly for Luz to react, “I wish those two would just drop dead.”

Luz gasped and grabbed Clareeko before running away, leaving Amity baffled.

“I’m sorry I grabbed you,” Luz said. “But you can’t grant that wish!”

“But that’s what I do,” Clareeko said.

“I know,” Luz said. “But I’m telling you she didn’t mean that! _Please_ trust me!”

“I don’t know…”

“Please? How about this: if I can patch things up between Amity and Ed and Em, will you forget about that wish?”

"Hmm… well… OK, I guess I could do that.”

Luz breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she looked at Ed and Em, who, without showing the slightest hint of remorse, were pointing and laughing at Amity as she grabbed the copies of her diary from students. Luz shook her head in frustration. She really had her work cut out for her.


	7. Luz Saves Ed and Em

Luz could overhear Ed and Em as she walked over to them.

“I have to say, I’m a little impressed,” Em said.

“Yeah,” Ed said. “I thought she’d just run away to be alone like she usually does when she’s upset.”

“Oh, we spoke too soon,” Em said. “There she goes!”

And the two started laughing

Luz couldn’t believe how callous they were being. But she knew that they really did care about Amity no matter how they were acting right at that moment. How hard could this possibly be?

“Hey,” Luz said when she reached them. “What you did really hurt Amity’s feelings.”

“Who are you?” Em asked.

“And what’s that?” Ed asked, pointing to Clareeko.

Luz sighed. She was getting tired of all the introductions.

“I’m Luz. And this is Clareeko.”

“Are you one of Mittens’s friends?” Ed asked.

“Well… not exactly…”

“If you were, you’d know how mean she’s gotten lately,” Em said.

“Yeah,” Ed said. “In fact, someday she’ll thank us for this.”

“No, she won’t,” Luz said. “You must have read some of her diary entries, right?”

“Yeah,” they both said.

“Then didn’t you see how lonely she is and… and how much pressure she’s under and… I don’t know, all the other stuff she’s going through?”

“Well… yeah…" Ed said. "But that’s no excuse for how she’s been acting.”

“Maybe not,” Luz said. “But this isn’t going to help. You know, right before this, Amity yelled at someone–"

“See?” Em said.

“ _But_ I got her to agree to apologize for it.”

Ed and Em gave each other puzzled looks.

“You did?” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Luz said. “That’s what we were just about to do before all this. All _you_ did was make things worse.”

“Well… hey, why should we listen to you?” Em said. “We know Mittens better than you do.”

“Yeah,” Ed said. “We’re her family, and you just said you two aren’t even really friends.”

Ed and Em drew a spell circle and made the hood of Luz’s uniform float up and cover Luz’s eyes.

“Hey!” Luz said as they chuckled.

Luz sighed as she put the hood back down. Last time, she’d gotten on Ed’s and Em’s good side right away. She’d never experienced how irksome they could be under different circumstances. It made her appreciate what Amity must’ve gone through living with them. It also gave her an idea.

“Hey,” Luz said. “Did Amity ever try to get you in trouble for cutting class?”

“Why?” Ed asked suspiciously.

“I really need to get out of Hexside,” Luz said. “Do you two know how to do it?”

Ed and Em both frowned.

“No,” Ed said with a sigh. “Ever since that stupid Greater Basilisk attack, the security’s been so tight that even we haven’t figured a way to get out.”

Em nodded.

“Come on, I know if the three of us put our heads together we can figure something out,” Luz said.

“You really think so?” Em said.

“Yeah! Aren’t you two sick of being stuck in here?”

Ed and Em grinned.

As the three of them left the cafeteria, Luz said, “It must’ve been frustrating, Amity always trying to get you into trouble for something harmless like cutting class.”

“Yeah,” Ed said.

“I’m glad you get it,” Em said. “At first I was worried you were as uncool as her.”

“So, what about your other pranks?” Luz asked. “Amity told me you switched all the labels on the potion ingredients last week.”

“Oh, she _would_ bring that up, wouldn’t she?” Em said.

“Yeah. I’ll admit, we didn’t exactly… think that one all the way through…” Ed said. “But no one was hurt.”

“Yeah,” Em said. “I mean… not _permanently_.”

Luz rolled her eyes. Last time, the two of them had started changing their attitude because they'd been responsible for Amity getting attacked by Otabin. That was a pretty extreme situation. But that gave Luz an idea.

“Hey,” Luz said. “Before we try to get out of the school, there’s something I’ve always wanted to try.”

“What?” Em asked.

“The construction track has a big crane they keep in their storage room. I thought it might be fun to swing around on it.”

“Yeah, that does sound like fun,” Ed said.

“I don’t know,” Em said. “None of us know how to work that crane.”

“I do,” Luz said.

“But how?” Em asked. “You’re in the illusion track like us.”

Luz had forgotten that she was wearing illusion colors. “Oh… uh… I used to be in the construction track, but I got transferred.”

“Oh, was it recently?” Ed asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Luz said.

“Oh, that’s why we’ve never seen you before,” Ed said.

“Yep," Luz said. "Anyway, why don’t you find a space where we can try it out while I get the crane.”

They agreed to meet outside the cafeteria and split up.

“OK,” Luz said looking a little frantic. “I just need to get Ed and Em to apologize to Amity, then get Amity to apologize to Willow, then get Willow to talk to Principal Bump, and then everything will be fine!”

“What about the detention track kids?” Clareeko asked.

Luz groaned. “Well, one thing at a time.”

Before going to get the crane, Luz went back to the cafeteria just as lunch was about to end to find Willow and Gus.

“Luz!” they both said when they saw her.

“Did you hear what happened to Amity?” Willow asked. “Serves her right.”

Luz decided not to press the issue. Willow would see things differently after Amity apologized.

“Gus,” she said. “Can you help me with something?”

“Gus?” he said.

“Oh, yeah, that’s a common human nickname for ‘Augustus’.”

“Wow! I have a human nickname now! This is the best day of my life”

“I’m happy for you, buddy, but I’m in kind of a hurry. Can you help me with something?”

“Sure, anything!”

Luz explained her plan to Gus as they went over to the construction track’s storage room. Luz got the crane, which was an actual crane, as in the bird, with the ability to stretch its neck to be as long as it needed to be for the construction project in question.

“Hey, there, Limey!” Luz said to him.

Luz had been on pretty good terms with Limey before she’d made her wish, and she knew how to get on his good side again. She went over to the bag where they kept his favorite treat, a type of berry that looked like an eyeball, and gave him a few.

The crane munched on them appreciatively and nuzzled up against Luz, who laughed. Then, it spotted Clareeko and lunged its neck towards her and snapped its beak.

“Eek!” Clareeko said, fluttering out of its way just in time to avoid getting eaten.

“Hey! None of that!” Luz said sternly. “Now, how do I get you out of here without anyone seeing…”

Luz looked around and spotted a big tarp. She covered up Limey, and the group left trying to look as unsuspicious as possible, though they got a lot of funny looks in the hallway. They got to the entrance to the cafeteria where Ed and Em were waiting for them.

“Oh, you're Augustus, right?” Ed said. “Are you coming too?”

He and Luz nodded.

“We found out that the gym is empty this period,” Em said.

“Yeah, it’s perfect,” Ed said. “That has the highest ceiling we can get as long as we’re stuck in the school.”

“Great, let’s go,” Luz said.

The group made their way to the gym, and Luz unveiled the crane.

“Aww, it’s cute!” Ed said.

“His name is Limey," Luz said. "Watch this.”

Luz whistled, and Limey stretched its neck up to the ceiling.

“Wow!” Ed, Em, and Gus all said.

Luz whistled again, and Limey’s neck went back to normal.

“That was amazing!” Em said.

“Here you go, buddy,” Luz said, feeding it another berry. “He likes these berries.”

Ed and Em exchanged sly glances and drew a circle. A big bunch of berries appear in front of them. Limey eagerly tried to eat them only for them to disappear in a puff of smoke, making him squawk in annoyance as Ed and Em laughed.

“Hey! Don’t tease him!” Luz said.

“Come on,” Em said. "It's harmless.”

Luz grumbled and gave Limey a real berry. But that also gave Luz an idea on how to make her plan work better.

“You really irritated him,” Luz said, even though she could tell that the treat she’d just given him had made him happy. “I can tell that he’s angry now.”

“He doesn’t look that angry to me,” Ed said.

Then, Luz looked at Gus and tugged on her ear, which was the signal they’d worked out earlier. Gus made an illusion of Amity appear to come through the doorway.

“Mittens?” Ed said.

“What are you doing here?” Em said.

While their heads were turned, Luz gave Limey a hand signal to pick the illusion of Amity up with its beak.

“Hey!” Amity screamed.

“Oh no!” Ed said.

“Don't panic!” Em said. “Luz, he’s safe, right?”

“I don’t know,” Luz said. “You got him _really_ angry with that berry trick.”

While the twins were looking in horror, Luz surreptitiously gave another signal, and Limey dropped the illusion, which screamed as it hit the floor.

Ed and Em gasped and ran over to it.

“Mittens! Are you OK?” Ed asked.

“Just get away from me!” the illusion said, appearing to grimace in pain as it lay limp.

“We’re going to help!” Em said. “Tell us where you’re hurt.”

“No!” the illusion said. “Don’t get any closer! I don’t want any help from you! Not after what you did with my diary.”

“That’s not important now,” Ed said.

“It is to me,” the illusion said. “You really humiliated me and hurt my feelings.”

“We’re sorry!” Em said.

“Yeah!” Ed said. “You’re right! We never should’ve done it. Just let us help you!”

Luz could see that they were terribly scared. They were both even in tears. She’d never seen them like that before.

“OK, Gus,” Luz said. “I think that’s enough.”

Gus drew a circle, and the illusion disappeared.

“What?” Ed said as Em just stood in stunned silence.

“That was an illusion,” Luz explained.

“Why would you do that?!” Ed said.

“Yeah!” Em said, wiping away tears. “You really scared us!”

“That was a dirty trick!” Ed said.

“I'm really sorry I put you through that," Luz said. "And I _never_ would've done it if I didn't have a good reason."

"What could that reason possibly be?" Em asked.

"I did it to get you to realize how much you care about Amity," Luz said. "So you two would go to her and patch things up.”

“What?!” Ed said.

“You went way too far!” Em said.

“Yeah, well… well now you know how it felt for Amity when you spread around her diary. You two went too far that time.”

“That’s not the same thing!” Em said.

“And what we did with her diary was to help her,” Ed said.

“Was it?" Luz asked. "Or was that just an excuse to get back at her for tattling on you?"

Ed and Em didn't answer.

"Was that really worth it?" Luz said. "And even if you were trying to help, you still made her feel miserable. I talked to her, and she feels really hurt and betrayed. She’s _never_ going to stop thinking that what you did today was terrible.”

Ed and Em looked at each other uncertainly. Luz knew that this wasn’t the same as last time, when the twins really _had_ put Amity in danger. She just hoped it would work anyway.  
  
“Will you at least talk to her?” Luz asked. “Think about it. What if something like this really _did_ happen to Amity? Do you really want things to stay this way between you?”

Ed and Em considered that, and finally they both sighed.

“OK, we’ll talk to her,” Ed said.

“Yeah,” Em said. “Just never do anything like this to us again, OK?”

"Yeah, it was really rotten," Ed said.

"I won't," Luz said. "I swear."

After they all got Limey back to where he belonged, Gus left for class, and Luz went with Ed and Em to wait for Amity outside her locker.

Luz knew she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Amity and the twins had been on pretty good terms after the library incident, but Amity had only caught them _reading_ her diary that time, not spreading it around. If only Amity had seen their reaction just then when they'd thought she'd gotten hurt. Then Amity would've seen that her brother and sister really did care about her. Luz had considered trying to engineer that but had decided it would've been next to impossible.

The group spotted Amity walking towards her locker from down the hallway. She glared at the twins when she spotted them, and Ed and Em, newly chagrined, had trouble looking her in the eye. But before they could speak to each other, a group of guards approached Ed and Em.

“There you two are,” one of them said. “You’re in big trouble this time.”

“For what?” Em asked.

“For trying to set a fire in the bathroom,” the guard replied.  
  
“What?!” Ed said. “We never did that!”

"Yeah, there's nothing even fun about something like that," Em said.

“We have too many witnesses for you to try to deny it," the guard said. "You’re heading to detention.”

A guard grabbed each of them and started dragging the dumbfounded twins away. Then, Amity came up to Luz.

“I did it!” Amity said. “I finally got those two in trouble!”

“But when did they start a fire?” Luz asked.

“Well… they didn’t…" Amity said, looking a little uncertain. "But they’ve done plenty of other stuff!”

“You mean you framed them?”

“Yeah, they’re always good at covering their tracks for things they do, so I figured the only way to get them in trouble was for something they _didn’t_ do. But it’s not like they don’t deserve it.”

“But the guard said there were witnesses,” Luz said.

“Yeah, Boscha convinced some people to say they saw them do it.”

Luz imagined that Boscha’s “convincing” was pretty aggressive.

“Amity, do you know what detention is like?” Luz asked.

“How would _I_ know what detention is like? I don’t hang around with those kinds of people.”

“Well, it’s really horrible,” Luz said. “I know what they did to you was bad, but you still wouldn't want them in there if you knew what it was like.”

“No matter how bad it is, they deserve it," Amity said.

Luz realized she wasn’t getting anywhere, so she rushed off to the side with Clareeko.

“Clareeko, I know I didn’t patch things between Amity and the twins, but _please_ don’t grant her wish! Amity seemed pretty happy getting them in detention, didn't she? Isn’t that enough?”

“Hmm…” Clareeko said.

“Please? Can’t you not grant her wish for my sake? When we first met, you said you were trying to cheer me up. And if you grant Amity’s wish, I’ll be miserable. Can’t you please do me this favor?”

“Well… OK, maybe this one time I could.”

Luz breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed Clareeko in a hug, which made them giggle, and said, “Thank you!”

Then, Luz sighed again, this time with regret. So far, her wish had made things a lot worse than she'd expected.

But school was almost done, meaning Ed and Em wouldn’t be in detention long. They were pretty capable; surely the two of them could handle themselves in detention for a little bit, right? And even if she hadn't fixed things today, she’d get another chance to fix things tomorrow. She just needed to get back to the Owl House. Once she saw Eda happy with her full powers, everything would be better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this story's been pretty grim so far, but hopefully that'll make things all the more worth it by the end. I really like writing the Blight siblings, and for anyone interested, I wrote [another story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463562/chapters/64481833) about them that's a little lighter than the past two chapters have been.


	8. Luz Goes to the Owl House

Luz waited outside detention at the end of the day to check on Ed and Em and saw them exit as a morose, quiet pair with their heads hanging low, nothing like how they usually acted. Detention had apparently been tougher on them than Luz had expected such a short stint to be. Luz wondered whether she’d have to break them out tomorrow and maybe even do some damage to the whole place like she’d done last time so that no other students would have to be put through it anymore. But all that would have to wait.

“Are you OK, Luz?” Clareeko asked as they made their way to the Owl House.

Luz sighed. “I’ll be OK once I see Eda. But this whole day has been tough. I guess I never realized everything I’ve done since I got here. I never set out to fix everyone’s problems. It all just kind of happened.”

As they neared their destination, Luz remembered how Hooty hadn’t let her in the last time. She’d need some excuse to get in, and she had an idea of what might pique the interest of one of the Owl House’s inhabitants.

“Who goes there?” Hooty asked.

“I’m here with an offering for the great King of Demons!” Luz declared loudly.

“An offering?” Luz heard King say from inside. “Let them in! Let them in!”

Hooty dutifully opened his mouth, and Luz and Clareeko entered.

King ran over and shouted, “What’s the offering? Let me see?”

Luz pulled out her Azura book.

“A book?” King said. “That’s it?”

“Trust me, you’re going to love it.” Luz looked around. “Hey, where’s Eda?”

“Eda? Hey, wait a minute.” King’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not one of her enemies, are you? And this was all just some ploy to get to her?”

“No!” Luz said, shaking her head.

“Oh, good!” King said. “I was worried for a second.”

“So, where is she?” Luz asked.

“Well, she’s in her room, sleeping.” King’s eyes turned to the floor. “She’s been in there more and more lately.”

Luz frowned. “King, is everything OK with Eda?”

King sighed. “I don’t know. She’s been more tired lately, and she’s been staying in her room more and more.”

“Is the curse getting worse?”

“Curse? What curse?”

Luz realized she’d forgotten that Eda hadn’t told King about the curse before. It had only been because she’d turned into the Owl Beast in front of the two of them after King had taken her potion to give to her that he’d found out about it along with her.

“Um… never mind about that. Do you think I could see her?”

“Lately she’s been getting pretty angry any time I wake her,” King said. “If you want to see her, we’d better wait until she comes down.”

“OK,” Luz said. “Hey, why don’t I read from the book while we wait.”

“If you insist,” King said.

Luz read, and slowly but surely King grew more and more interested until he was finally enthralled, just like before. It also felt good for Luz to get her mind off of things for a bit.

After a while, Luz heard Eda’s footsteps.

“Oh, she’s finally coming!” Luz said.

Eda came into the room, and as soon as she glimpsed her, Luz was taken aback. Eda looked older than what Luz was used to and heavily fatigued, with dark circles under her eyes.

“Hi, Eda,” King said. “Some of my followers came to give me an offering! Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Eda said.

“Eda… are you OK?” Luz asked.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Luz. Hey, I’m a human!” She pointed to her round ears. “See? I can help you sell all the stuff you bring from the human world!”

Luz had expected Eda to get excited at the prospect of being able to better sell her wares, but instead she unenthusiastically said, “Oh, maybe.”

“Eda… Oh, I know what’s wrong! You need your apple blood. That’ll make you feel better!”

“No, I don’t want any,” Eda said dully.

“But you always have some apple blood after you wake up. It always perks you right up!”

King tugged on Luz’s pants. She crouched down, and he whispered, “Eda hasn’t been eating or drinking much lately. I’m getting worried about her.”

Luz watched as Eda plopped down on the couch and started playing Hexes Hold’em with Owlbert.

“That’s all she does all day now,” King said. “That and sleep.”

Luz went off to the side with Clareeko.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “Eda seems like she’s in really bad shape.”

“Yeah, the curse has been taking a toll on her,” Clareeko said. “And it’s exacerbated because she hasn’t been taking care of herself properly.”

Luz had always thought of Eda as the person who took care of her. She’d even worried that the extra burden of taking care of her had made it more difficult for Eda to deal with her curse. But now she was remembering all the times she’d encouraged Eda to take better care of herself, to rest and eat properly and take her potion on time. And maybe having someone she cared about to look after had made Eda look after herself a little better too.

Luz went over to the couch. “Eda, I know you’re the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. Isn’t that right? Do you think I could see a demonstration?”

“Not now,” Eda said, yawning.

Luz felt herself tearing up. All day, no matter what she’d been seeing with everyone else, she’d consoled herself by saying that at least Eda would be better off. But she looked miserable. Before Luz had made her wish, Eda may have been disappointed with the loss of her magic, but she’d still been happy and full of life. She didn’t seem that way at all now.

Luz’s ruminations were cut short by Hooty, who came into the house with a familiar figure wrapped up in his tubular body.

“Look who I found creeping around in the woods hoot hoot!” Hooty said before dropping Lilith on the floor.

Seeing Lilith and realizing that in this reality she wouldn’t be an ally, Luz backed away trepidatiously.

“Lily? What are you doing here?” Eda said.

Lilith stood up, and Luz could see the shock on her face when she got her first good look at Eda.

“Edalyn… what’s happened to you? You look terrible.”

“Hey! It’s not like you look your best either.”

Lilith grumbled as she straightened her hair, which had gotten disheveled from Hooty’s handling.

“Surely now you must see that the curse has gotten to be too much for you to handle,” Lilith said. “Why can’t you stop being stubborn and join me in the Emperor’s Coven? It’s for your own good!”

“Never! We’ve been over this. I’m not going to let the Emperor control me.”

“Well, if not for your sake than what about for mine?!”

“Your sake? What are you talking about?”

“Oh, Edalyn, how do you think it looks for the head of the Emperor’s Coven to not even be able to bring in her outlaw of a sister?” Lilith’s voice started quavering. “If I don’t bring you in soon, the Emperor is going to expel me from the coven.”

“Oh, so what?” Eda said. “I’m not going to give up my life just so you can keep your job.”

“It’s not just my job,” Lilith said. “The Emperor isn’t just going fire me and let me join another coven. If I don’t bring you in…” Lilith paused. “If I don’t bring you in, he’s going to… to punish me! I don’t know how, but it’s going to be bad. It might even be fatal.”

“What?” For the first time, Eda looked uncertain. “You’re making that up! This is just a ploy to get me to come in.”

“It’s not, I swear!” Lilith approached Eda and clutched her hands. “Please, Edalyn? If you would just give up this silly obsession with independence of yours, we could all be better off.”

Eda looked uncertain.

“You look exhausted,” Lilith went on. “Aren’t you tired of living like this? Wouldn’t it be nice to stop trying to resist the whole world and to just go along with things?

Eda looked away.

“If you don’t like what the Emperor does, how is what you’re doing now making things any better? At least from within the coven you’d be able to make a difference.”

For a moment, Luz was worried that Eda would relent. She did look exhausted, after all. But then the uncertainty left Eda’s face as she took on a look of determination.

“Let’s get this straight,” Eda said. “I’m never going to join the Emperor’s Coven, not in a million years.”

Luz grinned. She should’ve known better than to think that her mentor would be tempted to give in to the Emperor even in the shape she was in at the moment. But she was also worried. How long could Eda keep going on like this?

Lilith glared at her sister. “You always _were_ selfish!”

Hearing that made Luz mad. How could Lilith say that after she'd cursed Eda to get a spot on the Emperor's Coven?

And Eda was mad too. “ _You’re_ calling _me_ selfish? I gave up my spot on the Emperor’s Coven for you, and you repay me by trying to hunt me down!”

“You’re sending me to my doom! Do you understand that?”

“That’s your own fault, not mine.”

“I don’t know why I bothered trying to reason with you. You may be safe her, but I’m going to have my people all over Bonesborough from now on. What are you going to do, stay in this hovel of yours forever?”

“Hmm… no, but _you_ are! Hooty, seal us in!”

As soon as Eda said that, all the windows and doors in the Owl House closed.

“What are you doing?” Lilith shouted.

“I’m going to keep you in here.”

“You can’t do that!”

“I can, and I am! It’s for your own good. You said that if you didn’t bring me in, the Emperor would punish you. This way the two of us will be safe.”

“This is ridiculous! You’re keeping me a prisoner! You’ve called the Emperor a tyrant, but if you do this, how will you be any better?”

Eda chuckled. “Hey, why should you always be trying to capture me and never the other way around? It’ll be fun! Just like when we were girls.” Eda yawned. “Hooty, if she tries any funny business, make sure to put a stop to it. Don’t worry, Lily, it won’t be so bad. I’ll get a room ready for you.”

Lilith looked so angry that Luz got frightened.

“You won’t get away with this, Edalyn! You'll regret this! Mark my words!”


	9. The Owl House's New Guest

With or without Luz's presence, Lilith had ended up in the Owl House, though the circumstances were radically different. As Lilith furiously paced around the living room, muttering that Eda wouldn’t get away with trapping her, Luz snuck into the kitchen. It didn’t seem like Lilith had taken much notice of her so far, and Luz wanted to keep it that way. She still remembered being attacked and held prisoner by her. Who knew what Lilith would do if she spotted her?

“Hey!” King said once he noticed that Luz was back in the kitchen. “Let’s get back to the book!”

Luz shushed him and whispered, “Not so loud. I don’t want Lilith to know I’m here.”

“Why not?” King asked.

“She might do something dangerous. Like kidnap me to make Eda let her go.”

“Why would Eda care if you got kidnapped when she barely knows you?” King asked, which saddened Luz.

“King, aren’t you worried about Eda keeping Lilith here?” Luz asked. “Things could get pretty out of hand.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. Eda wouldn’t have locked her up in this house if it weren’t safe.”

Luz wasn’t so sure about that.

“Besides,” King continued. “Maybe having her sister around will be good for Eda. They can become friends again.”

“But Lilith’s being kept here against her will! She’s never going to put up with that.”

“Well, not much we can do about it now. Let’s get back to the book!”

“Maybe later.”

“Hey, I thought you came here to give me an offering. Forget about Eda and Lilith and start reading!”

“Not now,” Luz said.

“I’m commanding you!” King said.

“I said, ‘Not now!’” Luz said sternly. Then, realizing she’d raised her voice, she peaked into the living room to see whether Lilith had noticed, but it didn’t seem like it. She was still pacing angrily.

Luz turned back to King and saw that he’d retreated to a corner and looked glum.

“Hey, King, it’s OK," Luz said, going over to him to start petting him. "I’ll read more to you soon.”

King just grumbled.

“King, have things here been tough for you lately?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. Eda and I… we don’t really fit in anywhere else. When we met, I thought I finally found somewhere I belonged.”

“Because us weirdos have to stick together,” Luz said.

“Huh? Yeah, I guess you could put it that way. But for a while, Eda’s been getting more and more distant. The truth is… you coming over to read that book to me is the only fun I’ve had in a long time.”

Luz smiled. “It’s the most fun I’ve had all day too. But we can get back to it soon. It’s just that there are other problems right now.”

“Well, they’re not _our_ problem,” King said. “Eda never told me about her curse or even that she _had_ a sister. She obviously doesn’t want my help.”

“Oh, that’s not true. It’s just… I don’t think Eda likes people feeling sorry for her. Or thinking she can’t handle her problems by herself. Now that you know about all this, I think things are going to be better.”

“Well… if you say so. But what can _we_ do?”

Luz turned her head back to Lilith, who’d stopped pacing to sit on the couch and stew, and said, “I don’t know, but there has to be _something_.”

Luz was still frightened of Lilith but steeled her nerves and went over to the living room.

“Lilith?” she said apprehensively.

“Who are you?” she answered. Then Lilith stared at Luz's ears. “Better yet, _what_ are you? Some kind of human? Where would Edalyn even find such a thing?”

Luz could feel her anger rising but kept it under control.

“And what’s that thing with you?” Lilith went on, referring to Clareeko. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.”

“That’s not important right now,” Luz said. “You want to help your sister, right?”

“Of course! If only Edalyn would stop being so stubborn.”

“Well, what if I told you that the Emperor doesn’t intend to cure Eda at all? He’s just going to punish her.”

“That’s not true! It can’t be! And how would you know anything about it anyway?”

Luz considered how to answer. Maybe the only way to make Lilith believe was to tell her the whole story. But how could she prove it?

Before she had the chance to consider that, Eda came back down.

“I’ve got your room all set up!” Eda said with a bit more energy than Luz had seen from her earlier.

“Oh, I forgot about you,” Eda said, looking at Luz. “Why are you here again?”

“Forget about that,” Lilith said, rising from the couch. “You have to let me out of here!”

“We’ve been over this. This is the only way to keep both of us safe.”

“Edalyn!” Lilith yelled. Then she glanced at her staff, a gesture that didn’t escape Eda’s notice.

“You’re not thinking of trying to _fight_ your way out, are you?” Eda chuckled. “Hooty made short work of you just now. And that was before you were _inside_ him.”

“I know,” Lilith said bitterly. “That infernal house demon! But when I don’t come back, the rest of the Emperor’s Coven will come looking for me.”

Eda laughed. “Those losers? Ooh, I’m shaking!”

Lilith grumbled and sat back down.

“Wait!” Luz said. “You two are sisters! You shouldn’t fight! I know that if we just talk things over, we can work everything out.”

“I’m through trying to reason with her,” Lilith said.

“It’s nice of you to try to fix things between us,” Eda said. “Whoever you are. But there’s a lot of history here that you don’t understand.”

Luz thought of the irony of Eda’s statement. At the moment, she knew something major about the relationship between the two sisters that Eda was completely in the dark about. Luz didn’t want to think of the havoc that might ensue if Eda found out that Lilith had been the one to curse her.

“How’d you like to see your room?” Eda asked.

Lilith let out a huff but answered, “I may as well.”

Luz followed them upstairs to Lilith’s new room, which was actually Luz’s old room, and Lilith complained about the accommodations as soon as she saw it.

“Why would you choose to live like this?” Lilith asked.

“It’s not so bad,” Eda said. “It’s better to live this way but still have your freedom.”

“But I _don’t_ have my freedom!” Lilith protested.

“Huh… oh, yeah, that’s true… Hey, don’t worry about it! I’ll leave you to fix the place up to your liking.”

Then, Hooty popped its head into the room.

“Hooty hoot, I wanted to see how the new guest was doing!”

“Wonderful,” Lilith scoffed. “Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any worse.”

Luz followed Eda back downstairs.

“Eda,” Luz said. “Are you OK?”

“Sure!” Eda said. “Never been better!”

“Eda, you can tell me the truth. The curse is taking a toll on you, isn’t it?”

“Oh please. I’m the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles! You really think some little curse could slow me down?”

Luz sighed. Eda’s reticence shouldn’t have been a surprise. Even before her wish, when Eda knew her, she’d been reluctant to reveal how bad the curse was getting. Although Luz realized that the circumstances were quite different. Now, Eda was just trying to put up a front for a stranger. Before, she’d been trying to protect the feelings of someone she cared about.

“You know, maybe things would be better if you let people help you with your curse. Like King. He really cares about you.”

“I told you, I don’t need help.” Eda paused for a moment and added, “If I asked King to help me with my curse, he’d just get annoyed and leave. And then I’d be all alone.” Eda sighed. Then, she rolled her eyes and added, “Well, except for _Hooty_.”

“That’s not true!” Luz said. “I know King can be selfish, but there’s more to him than that. He cares about you.”

“Would you stop telling me what to do? I can take care of myself. I don’t need King or Lily or anyone else.”

Luz sighed in frustration. But before she had a chance to say anything further on the subject, Lilith came down the stairs brandishing her staff.

“All right, Edalyn, enough games.”

“Not this again,” Eda said. “Am I going to have to have Hooty take away your staff?”

“Why don’t you try?”

“Fine, if you want to embarrass yourself again. Hooty!”

Eda waited for a few seconds, but there was no answer. That was odd. It was rare for one of the Owl House inhabitants to _invite_ Hooty’s company, so when it happened, he was always there on the spot.

“Hooty?” Eda called again, her brow furrowing when once again there was no answer.

Lilith smirked. “My mistake was trying to _fight_ your house demon. When it came into my room, I wanted to send it away, but then I got a better idea. It’s so desperate for attention that it didn’t suspect a thing when I started talking to it. Then, I asked if I could sing to it. What it didn’t realize was that I was singing a lullaby spell. It’s fast asleep.”

Luz's eyes widened in fear, but Eda just looked impressed.

“Well, I have to admit, that was pretty clever,” she said.

“Yes,” Lilith said. “It was. You always looked down on me for being less powerful than you–”

“That’s not true!” Eda said.

“Oh, don’t try to deny it! Anyway, I was going to say that I only responded by getting clever and creative. And that turned out to be more important.”

“But after you put Hooty to sleep, why didn’t you just sneak out?” Eda asked.

“Because this time I’m not leaving without you. And look at the state of you. There’s no way you can stop me.”

“We’ll just see about that!” Eda said before calling for Owlbert.

“Wait!” Luz cried out. “Don’t fight! It’ll be a disaster!”

“Stay out of this,” Eda said before using her staff to magically push Luz into the kitchen with King before putting a magical barrier between it and the living room.

“This looks bad!” King said.

Luz watched in horror as the two sisters fought, screaming for them to stop as she banged on the magical barrier. As tired as Eda had been earlier, she seemed energized when faced with a challenge. She and Lilith zipped around the living room creating owls and ravens from the walls, floor, and furniture to strike at each other.

Luz tried to break through the magical barrier with various kitchen items but to no avail. She tried to spot Eda’s gem to see how much magic she had left and could tell that it was mostly black.

“Eda, stop!” Luz screamed.

Eda sent a yellow beam of magic towards Lilith, which she met with a blue one of her own. Luz saw the magic going out of control, filling up the entire living room. As the energies continued to get more and more volatile, Eda spared a moment and a bit of magic to throw Luz and King out the kitchen window.

After landing with a plop, Luz jumped up to see the walls of the first floor of the Owl House blow apart, showering rubble everywhere. Then, the second floor of the house crashed down.

“Oh no!” Luz cried.

The door to the Owl House landed in front of Luz, and she saw Hooty sleeping as if nothing had happened.

Luz ran to the Owl House as fast as she could and desperately started digging through the rubble of what had once been her home to try to save Eda. But before she got far, there was a loud crash and an eruption of debris as from out of the ruins of the house Eda emerged, now transformed into the Owl Beast and holding an unconscious Lilith in her jaws.

The creature’s eyes met Luz’s for a moment.

"Eda?" Luz said plaintively

For a split second, it almost seemed like the beast understood her. But then it turned away and ran off into the woods.


	10. Luz's Return

Luz ran through the woods after Eda for a long time before finally admitting to herself that she’d never be able to catch up. She felt tears coming to her eyes.

“Are you OK, Luz?” Clareeko asked.

Luz sniffled. “No! I never should’ve made that wish! I just wish things would go back to normal. I was so wrong when I said that everyone would be better off if I’d never come to the Boiling Isles! Everything is worse now.” Her voice began to waver. “And… and none of the people I care about even know me.”

Luz collapsed to the ground and began sobbing.

Just as she was feeling hopeless, she heard a familiar voice say, “Luz? Is that you?” It was Willow. “Hey, have you been crying? What’s wrong!”

“Willow?” Luz said. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just on my way to my class on ferns. We’re meeting in the woods behind Hexside today.”

“Ferns?” Luz said. What did ferns have to do with abominations? Luz looked up at Willow and saw through her tears that she was wearing the familiar green of the plant magic track.

“Willow… are you in the plant magic track?”

“Huh? Of course.”

Wide-eyed, Luz looked at Clareeko and beamed, realizing what must’ve happened. She wiped away her tears and looked at Willow.

“Willow, you know me?"

"What? Of course I know you, Luz. You're one of the best friends I've ever had! Did you hit your head or something?"

Luz jumped to her feet and hugged Willow.

"Oh, Willow, I’m so glad I met you!” Luz said.

“I’m glad too,” Willow said, puzzled.

Then, Luz realized that she’d run so far trying to catch up to Eda in her Owl Beast form that she didn’t even know where she was.

“Willow, where are we?”

“Huh? We’re close to Hexside. Luz, are you OK? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Luz said. “At least not anymore! Don’t worry, I’m OK. But can you point me in the direction of Hexside?”

Willow did, and Luz ran off, leaving her baffled.

Luz ran to Hexside as fast as she could, and with no guards to stop her ran right through the doors.

Luz looked around the hallways and spotted Viney wearing her dual-colored uniform and talking to Barcus and Jerbo. She ran over to them.

“Hey!” Luz said as she reached them. “The three of you are together! And you’re studying what you want!”

“Of course,” Jerbo said as Barcus barked.

“He said ‘Thanks to you,’” Jerbo translated

“Hey, Viney, how’s Puddles?”

“Great!” Viney said. “I’m trying to teach her how to do CPR, but it’s a little tricky. She’s crushed every dummy we’ve practiced on.”

“That’s fantastic!” Luz said before running off.

"I don't know how fantastic that is," Viney said to Jerbo and Barcus after she left. "Those dummies are expensive!"

Luz kept running, only stopping to appreciate the ruins of what used to be detention when she passed by it, until she got to Gus’s locker near the illusion homeroom.

“Gus!” she said while grabbing him in a hug.

"Hi, Luz," Gus said. "Nice to see you too?"

“Hey, are you sad about not being in the Human Appreciation Society?”

“Huh? Not at all! There are more important things than a human club. Like my human friend!”

“Aww, thanks Gus!” Luz said. Then she spotted Amity walking down the hallway and looking pretty cheerful.

“Amity!” Luz said as she ran over.

“Hi, Luz,” Amity said, blushing and looking askance. “Oh, is Willow here today? She let me borrow one of her books, and I need to give it back, but I haven’t seen her.”

“She’ll be here later. She just has class outside this morning. Hey, what are you doing in this part of the school?”

“I was just coming over to the illusion homeroom to thank Ed and Em. I had to give a presentation this morning, and they let me practice it in front of them.”

“So, you guys don’t hate each other?”

“Huh? I mean, they still get on my nerves sometimes, but I don’t _hate_ them. Oh, speak of the devils.”

Ed and Em had just gotten out of their class and came over.

“Mittens!” Em said. “How did it go?”

“Really good!” Amity said. "Thanks for helping me practice."

“It would’ve been more exciting if you’d listened to my suggestion,” Ed said.

“Edric, how could I have even found that many leprechauns on such short notice?”

Luz interrupted them to hug Amity, which made her turn bright red, and said, “It’s good to see you looking this happy. Oh, I’ve got to get back to the Owl House!”

Luz ran off, leaving Amity still blushing and speechless.

Luz ran all the way back to the Owl House, yelling out, “It’s still here!” when it came into view.

“Hi, Luz!” Hooty said as she got to the door.

“Hooty! It’s so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you too!” Hooty said. “How’d you like to hear all about my day?”

“Uh… maybe later.” Even Luz’s newfound enthusiasm had some limits. “I need to get inside.”

Hooty opened his mouth to let Luz in, and to her surprise she entered to find Eda, King, and Lilith setting up decorations in the living room.

“Huh?” Luz said. “What’s going on?”

“Luz?” Eda said. “I thought you wouldn’t be here until after school.”

“This ruins the surprise!” King said. “I haven’t even _started_ baking the cake. And your Hexside friends won’t get here for hours.”

“What is all this?” Luz asked.

“We thought you seemed sad last night,” Eda said. “So, we wanted to surprise you with a party to show you how much we appreciate you. Plus, we never made up for that last celebration that got interrupted.”

“You did all this for me?” Luz said, feeling her eyes start to water.

“It’s the least we could do,” Eda said. “You’ve brought so much to this house.”

King went over and snuggled up to Luz.

“You’ve all done so much for me too,” Luz said.

Eda gestured towards Lilith and added, “Although you should know that this was Lilith’s idea.”

“Really?” Luz said. She looked at Lilith, who was hanging streamers in a corner.

“Well,” Lilith said. “Last night I didn’t feel that it was right that you were blaming yourself… for something that was my fault.”

Lilith’s eyes turned downward as she said that. Eda noticed and walked over to put a hand on Lilith’s shoulder, which made her glance up at Eda and smile.

“Wow!” Luz said. “Thank you, Lilith. Thanks, everyone!”

Luz ran over and hugged Eda and King and said, “No matter what happens, I’m so glad I came to the Boiling Isles and met all of you.”

“We are too,” Eda and King said.

Then, Luz glanced at the doorway and noticed that Clareeko, who had been hovering right outside the door, was beginning to flutter away. Luz broke off her hug and said, “I’ll be back in just one second!”

Luz ran out of the Owl House and cried out, “Clareeko, wait! Are you leaving?”

“Mm-hmm. It seems like you’re feeling better! So, it’s time for me to move on.”

“Thanks, Clareeko! I do feel better! But it’s not just because you showed me how bad things would be without me and how much of a difference I’ve made. Last night, before you even granted my wish, you made me feel better just by keeping me company.”

“Really?” Clareeko said. No one had ever said something like that to them before.

“Yeah! Hey, why don’t you stay for the party?”

“Hmm… we don’t usually do things like that…”

“Please?” Luz said. “After everything we just went through, it wouldn’t feel complete without you.”

Clareeko considered it. It would be so unusual. But it also seemed like it might be fun. And during their time together, Clareeko had grown to like Luz more and more.

“Well… OK, I’ll come!”

“Great!” Luz said. “Except… can you not grant any wishes while you’re there? Or at least check with me first?”

Clareeko giggled and said, “OK.”

Luz and Clareeko went back to the Owl House.

“Hey, who’s this you’ve got with you?” King asked as they stepped into the living room.

“This is Clareeko,” Luz said. “My new friend!”

Eda chuckled.

“What?” Luz said.

“Nothing,” Eda replied. “It’s just that coming back here with a new friend is so like you.”

Eda went over and ruffled Luz’s hair.

“Oh, Luz, what would we do without you?”

Luz winked at Clareeko and said, “I don’t know!”


End file.
